MV Monday: Shuangzi, Nahash, Matthieu Ha, GALA

That was a whirlwind of a weekend – swear someone’s been spiking this pollution with something potent. I’d recommend avoiding the ‘orange’ and instead, get nice and cozy with these video outings from Shuangzi, Nahash, Matthieu Ha, and GALA.

That’s the latest MV from local Beijing rapper Shuangzi, who along with the group Porcelain, have garnered quite the underground following in the past few years with honest lyrics about the life and times of a Beijingerren that’s wisely avoids the ‘gangster’ rap that so many artists have fallen into and focusing moreso on social issues (check out this fine interview from Mr. Alpart) – their latest single ‘No Kidding’ is upbeat, light on its feet, crunchy piece of business that features OOC singer Cheng Chen on the chorus and looks like it was a hoot to make.

Vimeo

Laura Ingalls of Acid Pony Club fame, is a roll as of late – seriously, his hand is in everything. Case in point, he has just released the first video for ‘Discussing the Weather’, the first track off of his doomday noise project Nahash – which sounds more like the soundtrack to a horror film than something you’d hear at the club (in fact he has also gone ahead and scored some silent films). The video put together by Tina Sprinkles over at Redscale Studios was made using decaying and hand painted 16mm and 8mm films. Trippy indeed. Hat tip to Jingweir for this little nugget.

‘Romantic Punk’ Beijing-based Belgium artist Matthieu Ha, whose quite the pimp with the accordion recently posted this lovely little Beijing travelogue, which plays out like a modern day Chaplin film with our singer playing the lead as he stumbles (or slides) about Beijing – all played over one of Ha’s beautifully rendered bittersweet melodies. It really is about time to check out the man in action – he’ll be joining the X Nights Festival due in April.

Lastly, indie pop group GALA has been riding high in the mainstream media for sometime – the band who make bubbly, heart-on-its-sleeve power pop, recently received an even bigger boost when their hit song ‘追梦赤子心’ was used during the Lantern Festival to promote the Sochi Winter Olympics – incredibly cheesy but hey, that’s the Olympics. Word is at the CCTV Lantern Festival show, the band lip-synched the entire show. Props.